Advice on a battery operated clock.

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jgold1957
 
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Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:36 am

Advice on a battery operated clock.

Post by jgold1957 »

I've been trying to resurrect a Rhythm clock that's been broken for years. Rhythm doesn't sell replacement parts so I'm trying to do it on my own. The design is very simple. I get a trigger signal from the clock and then based on the time, I play a sound.

The thing I'm worried about is the current draw. The clock should be able to run on two C batteries for a year. I did some programming on an Attiny years ago that would do the trick. It could be set to a really low power mode and has enough processing power for the simple clock application.

The other pieces are the problem. I need something that will play a sound file to the speaker. That means storage, a decoder and an amplifier. I think I can leave those powered off until they are needed with a power transistor.

It would be nice to have more features like a phone based interface or the ability to download new music files. That could be over wifi or bluetooth but it seems like the current draw would be too big.

I'm thinking maybe I'll just have an Attiny listening for the clock signal and have it power up everything else.

I guess the question is, what's the lowest power way of creating a wifi/bluetooth/mp3 player that can run off 2 C batteries? What devices would you recommend?

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